Absorbent products comprising side panels are today quite common on open absorbent articles and known to those skilled in the art. By using side panels instead of fastening tabs it is possible to make the chassis of the product narrower which saves both material cost as well as makes the product more pleasant to wear since the product doesn't cover as much of the users' skin. Another advantage is the fact that side panels can easily be tailored to have desired characteristics such as elasticity or breathability.
A drawback with side panels is the production problem. Absorbent products are produced at very high speeds and side panels extending outwards in a lateral direction can cause problems such as jamming of the machine with the material pieces. This problem can be overcome by temporarily attaching the loose distal ends of the side panels in the process, said attachments at a later stage being released by the user when putting on the article. Such temporary attachments are described in e.g. WO2007/071267 and WO02/26183.
As mentioned above, side panels can be tailored to have specific characteristics such as elasticity or breathability. Such side panels are often composed of at least two material segments. An advantage of combining different material segments is that elastic materials and breathable materials tend to be more expensive than simple nonwoven laminates and the amount of such expensive material used can thus be reduced. A further reason may be that elastic materials as well as breathable materials can have a poor shear strength and if a large material piece is used the side panel might not be able to withstand the forces induced in the panel during use. Examples of such side panels can be found in US 20030109844, EP 1133967 and WO 2002049567.
A common problem with these side panels is that the attachment between the different material segments can provide a weakness in the side panel construction. This is normally not a very large problem if the different material segments are attached to each other by lap seams, which means that the lap seams will be influenced by a shear force rather than a peel force when the article is used. A lap seam has generally higher resistance to breaking when subjected to shear forces than when subjected to peeling forces.
An absorbent article having side panels comprising two material segments where said side panel is temporarily attached during production and transportation is disclosed in EP 1 418 874. The material segments of the side panels are connected by lap seams and are folded in a Z configuration and temporarily attached in the Z configuration. When the user pulls the side panels outwards to release the temporary attachment, shear forces are achieved in both the lap seam and in the temporary attachments. If one desires to break an attachment it is advantageous to have a peel force since it is not as strong as a shear force if applied onto the same attachment. Thus, if a shear force is achieved in an attachment which is intended to break this will be a disadvantage since the direction of force is unfavourable and a higher force is required which might lead to tearing of the materials attached by said temporary attachments. There is also a certain complexity in the folding arrangement of the side panels which might cause production difficulties.
In view of these documents there is still a need for a product which has side panels comprising more than one material segment where the user doesn't risk tearing the materials attached by the temporary attachment when releasing the side panels or to break the lap seam attaching the two material segments together. At the same time the production process of articles with such side panels should be easy without too many complex processing steps.